christie’s

Today, May 18th, is apparently International Museum Day, organized by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and Art Museum Day, organized by the Association of Art Museum Directors. I (Michael) had never heard of either of these designations until this year. Museums worldwide will be offering free or reduced admission, and here in the USA, many are using the day as a rallying cry to save museum and arts funding from the conservatives. [Hyperallergic]

Olly Gibbs has been using Face App to make artworks in the Rijksmuseum smile. These are cute. And much less creepy than seeing your friends as old people on Instagram, the app’s usual function. [The Poke]

Christina Ruiz seems to agree with Paddy’s takedown of the Venice Biennale. The review is packed with hilarious snippets like this:

“A video documents the US choreographer Anna Halprin’s ‘Planetary Dance’, a gathering of middle-class white people on a hilltop in Marin County, California, where they chant, run around in circles and express their horror for all war and violence. Halprin staged this performance in 1981 to “reclaim” Mount Tamalpais from the clutches of a serial killer who was targeting female hikers in the area. People were “gripped by terror” the video informs us. But then Halprin staged her Planetary Dance and the killer was caught! Amazing. It may be fun, even life-changing, to take part in a Planetary Dance. I don’t know because I’ve never done it. What I do know is that it is neither fun nor life-changing to sit through a video of one.”

Adrian Searle doesn’t care for the biennale but finds quite a bit to like in the pavilions. Anne Imholf’s “Faust” gets a lot of attention, as it should. [The Guardian]

And on the subject of Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albana and an artist included in the Biennale, critic Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei writes, “We are still waiting for the moment the international art press will shift its attention from Rama’s wallpaper and doodles to the actual “political canvas” this man has been painting in Albania, which has included landscapes of weed plantations, concrete-covered archeological treasures, natural reserves exploited by oligarchs for enormous profits, and a stunning portrait of a collapsing political system.” The catalogue mostly talks about how Rama transformed the city of Tirana into a color field painting as mayor and how his doodles draw from the tradition of surrealists. [Exit, via Walter Robinson]

In Slate’s new podcast series on working, in which they ask “What Do You Do All Day?” musician Dan Deacon gives a tour of his studio and talks about his process. I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but it’s worthwhile and humorously relatable to anyone who works from home/in a creative field. [Slate]

Does the world really need this many words to let us know Jimmy Fallon isn’t relevant? [The New York Times]

I’m unclear on why exactly Cabinet Gallery was invited to build their new, extremely ugly brick-and-mortar location (financed by including luxury residential units above the gallery) inside Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, a public park in London. I suppose it’s a public benefit that they included an artist residency, but this seems like an inappropriate (and mostly ugly) use of public land set aside for green space. There are plenty of examples of creatively-massed architecture that creates street-facing retail spaces while actually improving the public space it backs on to (the recent Lincoln Center plaza overhaul, for example). [Dezeen]

Hmm. The first trailer for Star Trek: Discovery is here and it’s not very promising. The production quality looks like a low budget flick on the SyFy network and I suspect I’m not alone in prequels-nobody-asked-for fatigue. (When can we get a new post-DS9 movie or series?) I’ll definitely watch it somewhere, but it’s absurd of CBS to expect people to pay for a streaming subscription based on this trailer. [io9]

Headline of the day: “Going to Art School Could Help Save Your Job From the Robots” [artnet News]

Christie’s Post-War auction was through the roof, by ARTnews’s account. Josh Baer said it felt a little ho-hum even though it performed perfectly—perhaps because the expectations were so high. [ARTnews, BAER FAXT]

Jeff Koons’ sculpture “Play-Doh 1994-2014” has paved the way for Donald Trump, according to Alex Melamid. Is it because there’s a melty orange blob in the center and a weird yellow thing hanging off the top?

Of everything that’s been written about Trump’s unlikely ascendence and the art world, Alex Melamid’s recent piece in TIME might just be the most specious and bizarre. According to Melamid, artists and critics have created a culture that idolizes avant-garde thinking, infantilism, and publicity above all else—thus legitimizing Trump’s outrageous approach to candidacy and governing. Two of the most laughable moments: Melamid citing Roberta Smith’s praise of Jeff Koons’ “Play Doh” sculptures (because the average Trump voter is an avid NYT Arts reader, I’m sure?) and the wildly out-of-touch statement “plagiarism in the arts has mutated into what’s now called appropriation, a term stripped of any negative judgment.” LOL. [TIME]

For anyone else who ever thought the Harvard campus reminded them of Hogwarts, you’ll enjoy this bit of news that sounds like something out of Harry Potter. The Harvard Art Museums is restaging “The Philosophy Chamber,” a sort of wunderkammer from the university’s early history that became the basis for the museums’ present collections. [The Harvard Crimson]

A lottery has opened for affordable housing units in a new Long Island City high rise, starting at under $1,000/month. Apply now! There are only 34 slots, sadly. [Curbed]

Coming as a shock to no one, Anne Imhof’s “Faust” has snagged a Golden Lion at Venice. The “health goth”-esque performance was by far the most talked-about piece of the Biennale. [ARTnews]

Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is being lauded as the biggest and most important exhibition of Cuban art in recent history. Patricia Restrepo, however, feels that the Cisneros-backed show is lacking in nuance. We haven’t seen the show ourselves, but if you’re in Texas, it looks like a must-see. [Terremoto]

AFC friend Jeanette Doyle has launched “CF” at the Research Pavilion in Venice and is looking for artists and curators to participate. The framework: you chose a nation you want to represent and an art work and stage it. CF will present these staged works via a series of projections chosen at random with the help of a computer algorithm. Deadline for submissions is August 11th. Submit here. [Art & Education]

Steven H Silberg has launched an art-making project titled “In Care of the White House”. Artists are invited to create works in response to the Trump administration, which the organization will document and send to the White House, with the idea that all the pieces will end up as a document of dissent in the National Archives for posterity. [In Care of the White House]

Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips are looking to auction off over $1 billion worth of art this week, including a 6-foot Basquiat at Sotheby’s that’s valued at $60 million. These auctions are being watched closely as a litmus test for the art market. Since Russian and Middle Eastern bidders have retreated from the auction scene due to lower oil prices, it’s been a buyer’s-market-boon for American and Asian collectors. But now the market might’ve bounced back, as the auction houses are hoping. [CNBC]

The worst restaurant in America: Trump Grill. What a crushing review. Naturally, Donald Trump has already tweeted nasty things about the publisher. What a thin-skinned, small man. [Vanity Fair]

Christie MacLear will leave her position as CEO at the Rauschenberg Foundation for Sotheby’s There she’ll be expanding the advisory services within the auction house acting as its expert on artist estates and foundations. Really didn’t see this coming. It’s a big loss for the Foundation. [ARTnews]

Baltimore city has condemned the Bell Foundry, a place where people of marginalized identities could be live in a community and be cared for. [Hyperallergic]

And the award for fanciest Year In Art web feature goes to Artsy (and UBS). Aside from expensive design, though, there’s precious little to say about it. It’s a list of things events and artist responses. [Artsy]

While Guy Wildenstein, of what was once Pace Wildenstein (now Pace Gallery) is awaiting a verdict on tax fraud in France, he’s offloading some absurdly expensive property. The going price is 39.8 million and it’s 9,600 square feet. [Curbed]

It would be good if NYC officially addressed the homeless problem rather than temporarily housing the homeless in $200 a night hotel suites. [Gothamist]

Jerry Saltz discusses Andreas Gursky’s “Amazon”, a photograph taken inside an Amazon warehouse in Phoenix, as it pertains to the election. Saltz describes the photograph as depicting the “almost-unknowable patterns of contemporary mass consumption and the hyper-distribution of goods.” Seems like this photograph really has scale going for it. It’s 81.5 × 160.25 inches. [Vulture]

Retail sales on 57th and 5th street are way down thanks to the Trump Tower security for the president-elect’s family—which is now advertising the security as a draw. That means galleries in that neighborhood such as Tibor de Nagy, Marian Goodman and Mary Boone are all being effected. Nobody is happy. [Artnet news]

Naeem Mohaiemen, in a piece illustrated with Hans Haacke’s photos from Saadiyat Island, writes about the efforts of the Gulf Labor Coalition. From the text: “Defiance is welcomed when it is sanctioned and staged as art. Drill a crater in the floor, flood a gallery, embalm an animal, smash an object, stage a pitiful death—critics hail these gestures as having the power to “shape worlds.” But when artists sit down at a conference table with museum administrators and read from a list of demands for labor rights, this work—involving conversation, negotiation, research, protest—suddenly becomes illegible to the same museum. The artists whose projects were previously praised as stretching boundaries are now tagged as maverick spoilers.” [The Walker Museum of Art]

Josh Baer says Brett Gorvy, the Chair of Contemporary and Post War art at Christie’s will be leaving to join the gallery Dominique Levy. [Baer Faxt]

Does the Oakland Warehouse Fire “mean the end of these spaces in the Bay Area and with it the last vestige of any kind of affordable artists community?’” asks artist Aaron Muszalski. No real answer here, because once you make a warehouse space legal for residence the rents go up. [The New York Times]

Sean Hannity just bought Donald Trump a painting by Right-wing-kitsch producer Jon McNaughton, painter of gems such as a tableau depicting Jesus delivering the constitution to the Founding Fathers and “One Nation Under Socialism,” in which Obama burns said Jesus-given constitution. The one Hannity purchased for Trump shows all the white presidents looking disappointed at Obama, because Obama is ignoring a dejected-looking white guy sitting on a bench. According to McNaughton’s Twitter, this is destined as a housewarming gift for the White House. [Wonkette]

Has a French family had a notebook full of Van Gogh sketches in their oblivious ownership for generations? Scholars are divided on the authenticity of one such claim. [The Telegraph]

The Memphis School is making an art world comeback, in the market and in exhibitions. [artnet News]

The Upper West Side’s Trump Place development will be getting a new name, after tenants petitioned that they were embarrassed to live in buildings once owned by the president elect. [Curbed]

Architect Max von Werz has renovated a 1960s concrete building into a new home for Mexico City’s OMR gallery. It’s so nice, if you’re a fan of brutalism. [Dezeen]

David Newbury a technologist speaking at the Museum Computer Network conference had this to say about art. “Art is nothing important. Where it’s important is where it connects people to people and people to events and people to things. It’s a social network of objects.” Beautiful. [Hyperallergic]

Ohad Meromi’s hot pink sculpture “The Sunbather” has been installed in Queens, and some neighbors aren’t too thrilled about it. I (Michael) kinda like it. Nobody ever unanimously agrees on public art. Let’s stop pretending that every person has to personally engage with every artwork in the public sphere. [QNS]

Wow, this Apartment Therapy guide to hanging art is truly terrible. Their formula is likely to confuse everyone who hasn’t hung art before and will likely have dwellers end up with a lot of crooked art on the wall. Don’t use this guide. [Apartment Therapy]

Christie’s Contemporary Sale Auction results are $277 million with 89% of lots sold. That sale total is down from last year, which totalled $331.8 million but with 80% of the lots sold. Josh Baer, asks in his newsletter, “We wonder which had a greater effect from sales a year ago – the post election climate or the fact Loic Gouzer has been missing in action at Christie’s with his knee injury??” [The Baer Faxt]

An early self portrait by Frida Kahlo was gifted to one of her studio assistants shortly after the artist’s death. It’s remained in a private home and relatively obscure for 60 years. Now it’s heading to auction. [Huffington Post]

Tomilson Hill is opening his own private museum in Chelsea on West 24th street. The Hill Art Foundation will be a two-story, 6,400-square-foot space that currently does not plan to charge admission. The collection is estimated to be worth $800 million and consists of stalwart contemporary artists like Christopher Wool and Richard Prince as well as Renaissance and Baroque bronzes. [New York Times]

Eric Wesley was looking for something in between New York and Los Angeles that would reinvigorate his art practice and allow him to use alternative space. What he found was an abandoned Taco Bell in Cahokia, Illinois. The renovated fast food joint operates as a gallery, installation and workspace.[Chicago Tribune]

Manhattan art consultant, Lacey Doyle, was arrested on Thursday. She is accused of using overseas bank accounts to hide millions of dollars she received from a family inheritance. Doyle is out on bail and faces up to six years in prison. [New York Daily News]

Stephen Hawking explains his belief that Brexit signals a need for society to change its relationship with money. He believes that we need to refocus on “cathedral projects,” meaning the type of initiatives that only serve the purpose of cultural good rather than short term profit. [The Guardian]

The original film from 1954 has long been understood to be an allegory for the birth of atomic weaponry and it looks like Godzilla is returning to its political roots. Kotaku’s man in Japan explains how the film is actually about the rise of right-wing militarization that is currently sweeping the country. Unfortunately, it seems, the film spends the bulk of its time with politicians arguing and doesn’t have enough giant lizard. [Kotaku]

The Detroit Institute of Arts is planning to better reflect the demographics of its home city by expanding its collection of African-American art. [Hyperallergic]

Following the release of a 2016 sales report that was relatively grim, three top executives have left Christie’s auction house. It’s unclear if the two events are related. [artnet News]

Leonardo da Vinci expert Mario Taddei explains why Dan Brown’s conspiracy theories about The Last Supper are probably bullshit and positions the painting as following proper traditions for the scene. Taddei says the most notable break from tradition is simply da Vinci’s choice to paint the apostles without a halo, indicating that they were just common men. [Smithsonian Magazine]

Found Art: Russian man crashes truck full of yellow paint and reconsiders his life. [YouTube]

Barbara Gladstone Gallery will recreate, “Blind Perineum,” the performance that put Matthew Barney on the map 25 years ago. Gladstone has borrowed the original elements that were used in the performance in which Barney climbed around the gallery ceiling with ice screws and a harness. The anniversary show is scheduled for September 8th. [New York Times]

Robert Irwin is just finishing up a permanent installation at Donald Judd’s Texas outpost Marfa. It will be the first new permanent work in 16 years. It’s hard to tell from the photos what exactly this project is but it will be officially unveiled to the public on July 23rd. [The Art Newspaper]

The latest artist to jump into the Trump protest fray has built a wall around the Donald’s star on the Hollywood walk of fame. I know that this election has been hard on everybody but try a little harder people. Most of the protest art has been pretty weak. [BBC]

Heads up video artists, Japan is making its final VCR this month. It might be a good time to pick one up for that retro project you wanted to do or to back up those old tapes for posterity. [Mental Floss]

The internet was freaking out, yesterday, over this sculpture of a human evolved to withstand a car crash. His name is Graham and he’s pretty gross. [Jalopnik]

Kurt Cobain’s daughter, Francis Bean, is selling her art online. All we can say is it’s … affordable. [depop]

A design student, in London, wants to make a bag out of Alexander McQueen’s skin. The proposed project would involve using stem cells from the late designer’s hair to manufacture new skin. The student, Tina Gorjanc, is actually trying to patent McQueen’s genetic information and sees this as a larger piece of social commentary. [artnet News]

A number of big name artists will be taking over the prison that caged Oscar Wilde for an exhibition entitled “Inside.” Participants include Ai Weiwei, Patti Smith, Marlene Dumas, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Steve McQueen, Jean-Michel Pancin, and Wolfgang Tillmans. [artnet News]

John Stewart gets behind Colbert’s desk and lets it all out. [YouTube]

Yet another art app no one asked for: Google Arts & Culture. It seems to do many of the same things as Artsy with an eye cast more toward art history. And users can visit architectural wonders using Google Cardboard. And of course, search for artwork by color. I’d try it myself, but my phone has limited space thanks to all the immovable, self-updating “bloatware” apps Google has already snuck on there. [The Next Web]

In other Google news, the tech giant asked artists Marina Esmeraldo and Mallory Heyer to make a mural using the dreaded Google Sheets app, seemingly to make accounting look cool? Congratulations Google, there’s now a wall in Brooklyn that looks like a Miami juice bar/Zumba studio, thanks to the fun magic of spreadsheets. [The Next Web]

Sales reports from the first half of the year are down for Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Both auction houses are seeing sales in the ultra high-end collapse, with Christie’s latest total down 37.5%. Contemporary art sales took a staggering 45% hit, totalling substantially less than a billion. The surprising news, according to Marion Maneker is that Europe nudged ahead of the US in terms of buyers. Also interesting: new buyers account for 25 percent of all sales at Christie’s. In any event, The Wall Street Journal is describing the report as bad news for the top end of the market and health in the middle market. Meanwhile the Art Market Monitor has used the statistic of new buyers to predict growth, and perhaps even a flashier market going forward. [The Art Market Monitor]

Queen is really pissed that the Republican National Convention used “We Are The Champions” on stage… especially after they already publically criticized Trump for using their music in his campaign. Though after Hillary’s AIDS comments earlier this year, it’s probably not a good idea for her to try to channel Freddie Mercury either. [CNN]

Here’s some music Trump can probably secure the rights to, but might not want to: his daughter Tiffany’s awful foray into auto-tuned trash pop. Listen now (if you dare) before the campaign gets this scrubbed from the internet. [Youtube h/t Mieke Gentis]

Erik Satie was really, really weird. But he might have invented performance art, and spent 8 days in jail for it. [Flypaper]

Concept art has been revealed for the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. Please, god, do not let them turn this into a CGI clusterfuck that looks like a video game. The original was so, so good precisely because of its practical special effect that still hold up compared to contemporary movies. [Shortlist]

Related: in this tribute to Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, it’s revealed that they started making the latest of the terrible, terrible JJ Abrams reboots before having actually written a script. This film is directed by the same guy who brought us The Fast and the Furious…. A subtle joke from 30 Rock about a movie from that franchised being advertised as “Written by No One” now seems tragi-comically prescient. [Fox News]

An old Bronx courthouse has been scouted as the site for a new hip hop museum. [Curbed]

Larry Gagosian has finally agreed to pony-up $4.3 Million in unpaid sales taxes, including interest and penalties, after an investigation by the New York Attorney General. Given the scope of his art empire, it’s frankly surprising that number isn’t higher. [The Wall Street Journal]

Ron Perelman is donating $75m to a new performance arts center that is planned for the World Trade Center site. It will be named after the billionaire. The center was originally planned to be designed by Frank Gehry, but when the project stalled, his designs were shelved. Good. Too much Gehry. A new architect hasn’t been chosen yet, but Perelman says that he’s considering designs by Joshua Prince-Ramus. [New York Times]

Pulse has put out an open call for video artists to be part of its Miami edition this year. Selected artists will not need to be working with a participating gallery to be featured. Those who are interested in submitting work for consideration have until August 31st. [artnet News]

The Rauschenberg Foundation has announced the winners of its annual Artists as Activist Fellowship. 10 winners will split $775,000 that will be distributed over two years. One project, by the performance group Los Angeles Poverty Department, will attempt to devise “informal community policing vehicles that maintain respect for the well-being” of the residents on Skid Row. [L.A. Times]

Following the massive viral success of its Bob Ross stream, the live video platform, Twitch, is launching another art-related program: watching people eat. Warhol would be proud. [Polygon]

Holland Cotter loves PS1’s Vito Acconci retrospective. He likes it so much that there’s pretty much nothing negative here. That means he gets to spend the entire review just talking about the work. It’s a good read. [New York Times]

Speaking of good reads, Hilton Als has an excellent, long profile of Nan Goldin. We recently were surprised to find that critics were able to say something new about her “Ballad of Sexual Dependence.” It’s almost as surprising to find new nuggets from her well-worn biography. This is a must. [New Yorker]

We’ve seen post-Brexit results from Phillips and Sotheby’s so far this week, now it’s Christie’s turn. Following the surprise withdrawal of a 1994 Abstraktes Bild that was expected to sell for about £14m, the overall night exceeded the low-estimate with a £33.7m take and 92% sell-through rate. As for why the Richter was withdrawn, the owner reportedly did not want to reduce the reserve price. Collector Alain Servais said “There is no direct relation to Brexit except—as for the whole art market—we are living in more uncertain times.” [The Art Newspaper]

Josh Baer reminds us that currency issues have little to do with prices paid at auction, “A weak pound lets buyers in other currency bid 10% higher, which works out roughly the same. The only time it “saves” money is if there is just one bidder”. [The Baer Faxt]

Just in time for Summer beach season, go inside an elite Hamptons sex party. Or don’t. [Marie Claire]

Prosperity Dumpling, the dumpling house patroned by many art lovers and beloved for its insanely cheap dumplings is moving. Apparently, news of its back alley and roach infestation sunk the business. Still, sad news that they weren’t able to clean up their act. They are now moving all the way out to Bensonhurst in Brooklyn. We had to look that up to figure out where it is (way out by Dyker Heights). [Bowery Boogie]

We’re not usually up-to-date with pop culture gossip, but Johnny Depp is apparently in the midst of a fucked-up divorce, during which allegations of abuse were made against him. In anticipation of it being a pricey legal affair, Depp is selling his collection of Basquiats at Christie’s later this month. Can somebody please buy these for a museum so they don’t end up in a mutual fund’s storage locker in Delaware for 50 years? [The Daily Mail]

Alex Rotter will join Christie’s as their new chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art Americas. Rotter left Sotheby’s in February during a round of buy outs and the hiring of Amy Cappellazzo’s art advisory group. [The New York Times]

I have heard nothing but good things about Martin Creed’s solo show at the Armory, which I haven’t seen yet. Except that it’s kind of disgusting (yet endearing at the same time). You can play with balloons, but also watch videos of his mother chewing food, a woman taking a shit, and various people vomiting. I guess there’s something for everyone. [Observer]

The Statue of Liberty Museum only receives about 5000 people day, but that number hasn’t deterred the National Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation from planning a new, much larger museum. The new museum would be about 15,000 square feet and privately funded. They are looking for donors. [Curbed]

Canadian Art’s publisher and CEO Jill Birch is leaving for greener pastures. In a statement, the magazine’s board said they were looking forward to their September 22nd Gala. Any press release is an opportunity to fundraise, huh? [Canadian Art]

Instagram has been on a food-related censorship rampage lately, banning everything from the hashtag #eggplant to the account of artist Stephanie Sarley, who posts erotic photos of fruit. They even banned Sue Moseley’s photo of a cake because an algorithm decided it looked too much like a breast. Does the Instagram AI have some sort of sexual/food-related complex? Do androids dream of electric Peeps? Let’s hope they get this porn-or-food dilemma sorted out by the Fourth of July, or we’re going to be looking at a lot of users getting banned for selfies with hot dogs. [SCAD Connector]

Carolina Miranda reflects on the new SF MoMA, what it means for the already gentrified city, and what its inaugural uber blue-chip show signifies. At the very minimum, change. [L.A. Times]

Wow. Leave it to Scandinavia to solve two problems with one unlikely solution. Thanks to researchers in Iceland, we can now pump captured carbon dioxide gas and rising sea water into volcanos to create solid rock. I can’t even begin to fathom how this process works, but I guess we can look forward to basalt carbonate being the most bountiful art material of the future. [TIME]